CANFIELD — After April’s good news that groundwater and other testing did not show the presence of trichloroethylene on the Canfield High School property, the consultant hired by the school district has proposed carrying out periodic testing on school property if the Ohio EPA does not order Material Sciences Corp. to do it.

MSC is the company on West Main Street / U.S. Route 224 just west of the high school where chemical contaminants leaked last summer and were discovered as a brown liquid in a stormwater ditch next to the factory. The ditch is also next to the Mill Creek MetroParks Bikeway. The spill led to a cleanup of the ditch, then a broader investigation into the extent of the contamination, including from “historical” factory operations.

School district consultant Professional Service Industries recommended that the “groundwater on the Canfield High School property be monitored periodically (perhaps annually) to monitor the eastward migration of the existing (TCI) plume,” PSI stated in an April 9 report to the school district.

“It is possible that mid-term or long-term groundwater monitoring may be planned by MSC or perhaps even ordered by the Ohio EPA. If not, this monitoring is also something the (Board of Education) can do on its own,” PSI stated.

When PSI issued its monthly report May 20, it did not mention its proposed ongoing monitoring, instead focusing on the planned downstream testing of a wetland and parts of Sawmill Creek to the north of the high school and as far north as Kirk Road in Austintown near the Meander Reservoir.

The May 20 report summarized the 19 samples that were planned for a wetland just north of MSC and nine locations on Sawmill Creek that were going to be sampled for surface water and sediment contamination.

A May 30 document from August Mack, the company handling cleanup and management of contamination for MSC, states the samples were collected from the wetland and Sawmill Creek starting May 15 and were completed, but the results had not been released to the public by the Ohio EPA as of Friday.

However, MSC released information Thursday indicating that the test results showed that no elevated levels of free cyanide were found in any of the samples.

“Free cyanide is the regulated chemical of concern that was evaluated,” said Dan Williamson, MSC spokesman. He said the testing also was for total cyanide, but total cyanide is “a screening parameter, not regulated by the Ohio EPA.”

Williamson said the results mean that “Meander Creek Reservoir has not been impacted” by the chemical spill. He said the wetland sample results are not yet complete but will be summarized in a report in the coming weeks.

CANFIELD SUPERINTENDENT

Canfield Local Schools Superintendent Joe Knoll said no decision has been made to have PSI carry out additional testing on the high school property, adding the district had not “received any direction from the Ohio EPA.”

However, the May 30 August Mack document states that next round of soil and water testing August Mack plans to carry out would include a groundwater monitoring well and soil boring on Canfield High School property just west of the parking lot near an access trail to the Mill Creek MetroParks Bikeway.

It’s not clear if the installation would provide the kind of testing PSI suggests, but the August Mack document states the groundwater monitoring well and soil boring on the school property would enable August Mack to evaluate soils and groundwater there, including “groundwater flow direction.”

CREEK FLOW RESUMES

Last Monday, the Ohio EPA sent MSC a letter stating that the OEPA has approved a request from MSC to “restore flow from the stormwater ditch at your facility to Sawmill Creek.” It stated that the reason for this was the sampling data MSC provided to the OEPA showed that the water coming from the stormwater ditch beside the plant now meets Ohio Water Quality Standards for free cyanide.

The stormwater ditch has received significant cleanup work since the discovery of contamination in the ditch, including installation of a liner in it. The letter notes “other waters at the facility will still be collected and managed separately.”

Williamson said that since July 2024, MSC has “collected stormwater impacted by historical contamination and diverted clean stormwater around the ditch.” He said the liner in the ditch “physically separates the surface stormwater from subsurface impacts.”

He said because the testing of the water from the ditch “is below the Ohio water quality human health criteria for free cyanide of 0.4 milligrams per liter … Ohio EPA approved the natural flow of stormwater back into Sawmill Creek.”

Williamson said the “subsurface impacts below the liner will continue to be collected and managed appropriately. MSC will … ensure the stormwater within Sawmill Creek stays below the human health criteria for free cyanide.”

MORE FACTORY TESTING

The monitoring on the school property is one of several new types of testing August Mack proposed to the Ohio EPA in its May 30 document. Many of the new sampling points are under the main MSC building close to West Main Street / Route 224. Some of the work is intended to evaluate stormwater entering the stormwater ditch next to the factory and Bikeway, the document states.

The reason for those sampling points is due to “shallow perched water believed to be located in the coarse-grained fill material located beneath the concrete at the site,” the report states. “Perched groundwater” is “groundwater occurring in a saturated zone separated from the main body of groundwater by unsaturated rock,” according to Merriam-Webster.

The shallow perched water is impacted with the brown liquid that contains cyanide, zinc and hexavalent chromium,” the August Mack document states. August Mack proposed installing up to 24 shallow borings there.

1993 ASSESSMENT

The document also mentions a U.S. EPA assessment done in March 1993 at the MSC site prior to MSC owning it, during which 12 solid “waste management units,” meaning possible origin points for hazardous chemicals, were found. No “releases to groundwater, surface water, air, and/or on-site soils were documented” in 1993 the document states.

MSC has operated a metal galvanizing and soil coating business at the facility since 2013, the document states. The factory has existed since the 1950s under “various entities, including Canfield Steel and Pittsburgh Steel,” the document states.

The locations of the waste-management units are in places such as the factory’s cyanide room, galvanizing line, paint vault and parts room. Most of the identified areas are on the west side of the factory building, though a drawing in the document shows two former drainage lines, both now listed as “abandoned,” that traveled from the west side of the plant to the northern and northeastern part of the plant and then continued in the direction of the stormwater drainage ditch next to the plant.

Two other drawings show all of the “Areas of Concern” on and off of the MSC property, including the factory building, the stormwater ditch, the wetlands just north of the MSC property line, Sawmill Creek from north of the factory to Cardinal Drive and the “site-wide” perched water and “site-wide” groundwater.

The 1993 U.S. EPA assessment was carried out when the owner requested a permit. At that time, the EPA “recommended that the former waste-chromate-solution-treatment area undergo closure under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act,” the document states.

“In 2008, Ohio EPA reached a settlement with Canfield Metal Coating Corp. for past hazardous waste violations and issued an administrative consent order for violations that occurred at (the factory) at 460 W. Main Street in Canfield,” it states. “The settlement included a $10,300 penalty paid to the state’s hazardous waste cleanup fund and the Ohio EPA Clean Diesel School Bus Program.”

Based on MSC’s “historical site usage and metal galvanizing / coating processes” and other factors, during a meeting between August Mack and the Ohio EPA in February, the following compounds were identified as the primary chemicals of concern: total cyanide, free cyanide, zinc, hexavalent chromium and trichloroethylene, the May 30 August Mack document states.

FENCING

Though the installation of a fence along the northern end of the school property just south of Sawmill Creek was expected to begin earlier this month, it has been delayed. The fence is an effort to keep children and others out of Sawmill Creek, especially since soccer and other athletic fields are nearby.

An August Mack Monthly Progress Report to the Ohio EPA dated Tuesday states that the installment of fencing on the school property was “on hold pending location confirmation.” Some issues arose over a soccer goal and dirt pile that are in the path of the fence.

August Mack has been trying to negotiate with property owners along South Briarcliff Drive on the north side of Sawmill Creek to install a fence on the north side of Sawmill Creek, but there has been opposition to the idea. A June 10 August Mack document states that there have been “communications with the residents’ attorney regarding fence and sampling work in Sawmill Creek.”

Residents of Briarcliff Drive have told The Vindicator that the creek itself is on private property owned by the Briarcliff Drive residents, and August Mack representatives have sought to negotiate with them to acquire a right of way, but the negotiations are ongoing.

A study of an endangered species of bats was carried out by the company Integral Consulting Inc. It conducted an ecological risk assessment on behalf of August Mack for the MSC property and adjacent wetlands.

Integral obtained information from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Ohio Department of Natural Resources on the presence and distribution of threatened and or endangered species in the area on or near the factory. It showed the site is within the range of four federally listed species: the tricolored bat, northern long-eared bat, Indiana bat and little brown bat. The monarch butterfly, a candidate for federally listed species, “may be present in the area,” the document states.